Expert Consulting:
CSAG are now open to medium or longer term consultancy activities on a contract basis. If you are interested to find out more about the projects we have been involved in or what services and expertise we can offer please contact us on climateservices@csag.uct.ac.za. For a taste of the kind of consultancy we are involved in we have highlighted some of our projects below.
HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT:
CSAG and Eskom
CSAG have been working with Eskom to identify the utility company’s vulnerability to climate change. The work began in 2009 when CSAG were commissioned to provide expert input to the strategic planning required by Eskom and Sasol in order to adapt to future climate change scenarios. The objective of this project was broadly the evaluation of water resources in the context of the projected impact of climate change on South Africa.
The first year focused on the acquisition, integration and quality control of observational data together with the construction of baseline climatologies and trends for a set of key derived climate parameters. The second year investigated how the climate is projected to change into the future. Work included an assessment of general circulation model (GCM) based projections, the projected changes in the synoptic circulation dynamics and the statistical downscaling of regional climates for the study area. These different sources of information were integrated in order to develop defensible messages of regional and local scale climate change.
Alongside providing interpreted data to Eskom, CSAG and Eskom are working together to provide training and workshop sessions. This includes meetings with Eskom employees to start gaining an idea of their vulnerabilities to climate change, as well as communicating the limits of climate information. Providing climate information is of no use if the information is not decision-relevant for use so CSAG have prioritised interaction with Eskom employees to find out what would be useful for their purposes.
This is the start of a sustained engagement with Eskom and the work is continuing past the initial project. It is intended that this will become a larger project focussing on Eskoms national vulnerabilities and adaptation options.
Other Projects:
City of Johannesburg – Climate change and storm water management (2009)
CSAG provided a comprehensive report detailing climate change projections for the city of Johannesburg with a particular focus on storm water management, a critical issue for a city vulnerable to urban flooding. The report was based on station scale, statistically downscaled, projections of future climate change. The statistical downscaling was performed by CSAG using an in house methodology. Translation of the downscaled projections to relevant statistics, visualizations and summary descriptions formed the bulk of the report with substantial engagement with representatives from the city in order to refine the form and relevance of the resultant information.
South African electricity utility (ESKOM) – Climate change and generation (2010/11)
CSAG was contracted to provide climate change projections information to inform ESKOM’s long term planning strategy with regards to electricity generation. A particular focus was the identification of suitable locations for generation stations with specific thresholds of water and cooling requirements. Both downscaled projections and GCM based circulation fields were combined to provide multiple lines of evidence and hence draw more robust information to the decision making process.
City of Cape Town – Climate change impacts on urban infrastructure (2009)
CSAG contributed towards a comprehensive report on climate vulnerability and adaptation strategy for the city of Cape Town in South Africa. CSAG provided downscaled projections of key variables and parameters at spatial scales relevant to the city. GCM based circulation and process based information was also incorporated in order to provide more robust, actionable projections information beyond the conventional single information stream.
Climate Risk Screening Tool (2011/12)
CSAG were sub-contracted by the Global Climate Adaptation Partnership to provide projections of climate for use in a climate risk screening tool being developed for African Development Bank managers. CSAG provided data and plots customised for the decision support tool interface.
This is only a selection of the projects that CSAG have been involved in recently. For more information about how we could help your organisation please contact climateservices@csag.uct.ac.za